Designer Tom Ford and Richard Buckley are now Proud Fathers!

Congratulations to Tom Ford and Richard Buckley on birth of their son, Alexander John Buckley Ford!

The designer, 51, and his long-term partner Richard Buckley, 64, have welcomed the arrival of their first child, a baby boy called Alexander John Buckley Ford, who was born in Los Angeles on September 23.

Love Magazine broke the news of the birth of their son, with the tweet: “Congratulations to Tom Ford and Richard Buckley who have announced the birth of their son Alexander John Buckley Ford.”

The couple met when Ford, who took over the reigns at Gucci before launching his own successful company, was just 25 and Mr Buckley, the former Editor in Chief of Vogue Hommes International, was 38.

The baby is believed to have been born via a surrogate. Just last year, Ford said he planned to be a parent – but insisted he would not use his child as a ‘press tool’ adding: “I always said I wanted to have children. And as I got a little bit older, Richard, who I live with – we’ve been together 24 years – did not want children. And so I decided not to have children. But if I have children, no one will know about it until the child is born. Maybe you’ll see it when it’s 18, but I will keep it out of the spotlight.”

Ford has discussed his desire for children for quite some time, telling Fern Mallis just this year, “I’d better get busy [with having a baby] soon because I still want to be able to pick them up.”

Ford told DailyMail last year how it was love at first sight when he saw Mr Buckley at a fashion show in 1986.

Ten days later at the WWD offices in New York they shared an elevator ride and he said: “I decided in that elevator ride that I was going to marry him. He ticked every box, and — boom — by the time we got to the floor, I was like, ‘sold’. ‘He seemed so together, so handsome. And he really chased me — not that he had to chase that hard.”

He told Out: “You can look at someone and feel like you’ve known him forever. The first night I ever had drinks with Richard I felt I knew everything about him. I’m someone who likes being part of a couple and always wanted that and always sought that, and it would probably be true for me whether I was gay or straight.”